Things are “brewing” in Cordova.
Meddlesome Brewing Co. signed a lease for 5,000 square feet at 7750B Trinity Road near Shelby Farms Park. The new brewery and taproom has a tentative February 2017 opening date.
“With the number of people who are over there walking, running and biking, I think it is crazy not to be in this area,” said Ben Pugh, co-owner of Meddlesome Brewing Co.
Pugh and fellow owner, Richie EsQuivel, are still finalizing the days and hours of operation, but the space will include an outside patio as well as a 1,200-square-foot indoor taproom.
The taproom will be located in the front of the tenant bay, with the brewery operations in the back of the building. A cabled-off walkway will lead patrons from the taproom through the brewery to the patio located off one of the two loading docks.
“It gets people kind of in it,” Pugh said. “They are not feeling like they are stuck behind glass or behind walls where you can’t see [the brewery] and don’t know that it is there.”
Pugh and EsQuivel have many years of experience in both the homebrewer and commercial sectors. Pugh, the owner of Eclectic Ales, which sells brewery equipment, previously had a small brewery operation inside Rock’n Dough in Jackson, Tennessee. EsQuivel has worked with Boscos Restaurant & Brewing Co.
They have also both held leadership positions in the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs and Memphis Brewers Association.
“We were both avid homebrewers, and we have been friends for a long time,” EsQuivel said. “The reason we decided Memphis is because it is still an underserved market. There is still plenty of room for more craft breweries.”
Initially, Meddlesome Brewing Co. will offer draft only. Packaging will come at a later date after the Meddlesome brand is established. The owners are currently in talks with distributors.
As far as the brewery name — it comes down to quality.
“We have always kind of meddled with convention to come out with a better product,” EsQuivel said.
Pugh and EsQuivel are currently working with Woodard Architecture and Dan Walker Associates to plan the facility build-out.
Once open, they estimate about four employees will be hired to staff the brewery.
“The city really needed something over here,” Pugh said. “We are fairly centrally located to everything — Collierville, Lakeland, Germantown, Arlington, Eads, East Memphis. … The other thing that really made this an ideal location for us is [that] the Greenline is right here.”